What a Ride
What a Ride
It was a terrifying sight: The cab of a semi-truck, dangling 100 feet over the side of a snowy overpass on Route 35 in West Virginia, the driver still trapped inside.
“It was like a scene out of a movie,” said Westley Quinn. Quinn, lead street service employee for Mountaineer Gas Company in Charleston and a volunteer firefighter for Hurricane Fire & Rescue in West Virginia, was among the dozens of first responders from two states who reported to the rescue.
“It took about 25 firefighters, well-trained, working seamlessly to pull it off,” said Hurricane Fire Chief Paul Niedbalski in an interview with WSAZ in Mason County, West Virginia. And it was Quinn who volunteered to be the man lowered by cables to bring the driver up to safety.
The rescue took five hours to complete after the accident was initially reported. After clearing snow and ice from the area, the rescue team set up a complicated rope system. Multiple firefighters double- and triple-checked the setup, the knots and the carabiners. Then Quinn started down. “Honestly, whenever I finally made the push off the bridge, I don’t know how to explain it, I just, I was calm. I knew that I was in good hands. I knew what I had to do, and I had the training for this type of situation,” he said.
The driver couldn’t speak English, but Quinn was able to guide him in putting on the rescue harness. Then, the team slowly and carefully pulled the two men up to the bridge. “That was the relaxing part of it,” said Quinn. “I said, just think of it like a carnival ride. I don’t know if he understood me, but he did really well.”
Niedbalski told Quinn later that he’d never seen a rescue like this in his 39 years as a firefighter. For Quinn, who joined Hurricane Fire & Rescue a year and a half ago, it was his very first rescue.
The story would go on to make national news, covered by Fox, ABC and other outlets. “This is what true heroism looks like,” said Mara Lambert, communications representative for Mountaineer Gas Company. “We’re incredibly proud to have someone like Westley as part of our team.”
“I’m pretty good with heights, and I really like the ropes,” said Quinn. “And you know, I knew I could do it. I had confidence that I could do it. And like I said, I trusted my team that we had on the ropes behind me. I was just doing my job, doing what I signed up for.”